


Soulmates

by ProlixEllipsis



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Black Panther (2018) Spoilers, Cousin Incest, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 05:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13780350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProlixEllipsis/pseuds/ProlixEllipsis
Summary: Even fate cannot command us to be happy.  A short series of otherwise unconnected drabbles with a common theme.





	1. Names

T’Challa has been waiting for N’Jadaka all his life.  He did not expect to meet him in the fearsome figure before him.  In the man they call _Killmonger_.  In the cousin he’d never known he had.  In Erik Stevens from Oakland, California. 

He wonders, for a split second, if his father knew.  Then he shakes the uncertainty aside.

A king must make hard choices.  What is the weight of one soul against the safety and security of many, against centuries of custom and tradition?

What is the weight of two?

He’s determined to do his duty, to accept the challenge and defeat his soulmate, whose pain is now a raw wound that aches in time with his own heartbeat.

He wonders, for a split second, avoiding his mother’s mournful gaze, whether his own regret is even discernible beside the maelstrom that makes up N’Jadaka’s heart.


	2. Timers

All eyes are on Erik from the moment he steps into the room, the outsider among them.

Erik’s eyes never settle.  They scan each face, taking in every twitch and tell, committing them to memory to sort through later.  This is his moment, in more ways than one, and it’s almost funny that he’s too busy hurtling toward destiny to _meet_ it at the appointed time.

T’Challa’s eyes never stray.  In Erik’s eyes he reads anger, yes, but also anticipation.  His cousin sees possibilities in this room, his _destiny_ in this room, but T’Challa sees only one face he has not known all his life.  Where Erik hopes and plans, T’Challa despairs that destiny could be so cruel as to designate _this_ be the moment they meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By this point in the movie I think they’ve seen each other before, but I believe this is the first time T’Challa has ever seen Erik’s face, so I’m going with a meeting of eyes as requisite to run out the timer. Ergo, seeing the back of your soulmate’s head, or catching sight of someone in a mask, wouldn’t cut it.


	3. Seeing in Color

The world bursts into color for both of them in the throne room.  Everything around them is suddenly more vivid, more vital.

T’Challa has never before witnessed the full splendor of his kingdom, and for the first time, Erik takes in the color of his own skin, the dimensions of similarity and difference between himself and everyone who surrounds him.  The world is more than black and white.

Except no, it really isn’t. 

What difference should it make to Erik that he can name the shade of his soulmate’s sorrowful eyes before he kills him?  Just one more loss, one more scar, one more sacrifice, for a soul defined by them.

It is not as if T’Challa is tempted by the full grandeur of the Djalia, not when he knows it will forever be denied to his kin.

T’Challa sees the red of Erik’s blood.

Erik sees the gold of Wakanda’s sunset.

And then Erik dies, and the colors fade for them both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose to warn for a canon death that I mention all of once. So if you were worried about deaths, this is the only instance in which that warning was particularly relevant. Please read on without fear.


	4. Seeing in Color (Double Take)

It is convenient that he does not have to come up with an excuse for why she cannot accompany him, that the laws of Wakanda never come into the matter.  The hard facts of their (official) finances tell the lie of omission for him.  They can only afford one ticket to anywhere in even the _vicinity_ of Wakanda, and barely so much as that.

His love doesn’t want to let go so soon, but family is important.  Erik has already met his maternal grandmother, his great-aunt, an honorary uncle, the whole handful of people his wife has left in the world beyond them.  It is time he met his father’s family.

Timing is everything.  Erik flies free while he can still fit in N’Jobu’s lap, so the sooner the better.

N’Jadaka is 10 months and two weeks old, just past those firsts that new parents most look forward to, when his father takes him home for the first time.

A quick trip, only two weeks.

That’s as long as his wife will agree to be parted from their son, as long as he cares to be parted from his wife.

He is proud to tell his brother of N’Jadaka’s first words, first steps, to show his king how often his son smiles and the sheer ferocity of his tiny scowls.  He is proud to introduce his nephew to his baby cousin.

He does not expect the way they both shriek – in surprise, in delight, in unison.  For the moment, each seems far more fascinated with color itself than the one who brought it into being.

The bond is somewhat unusual, but not unprecedented, and most Wakandans have Wakandan soulmates.  Most of their souls are called home, not abroad.  It is fitting (and funny) that his brother’s heir should do the calling in this case.

He savors every sunset.  They are even more beautiful than he’d remembered, and he finds himself wishing he could share them with the one who made them so.

At the close of the second week, he leaves home for where he left his heart, proud and pleased that the world has come into color for his son so soon.

It is a good omen for the future, a sign that the decisions he is making are the right ones.  After all, timing is everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously considered titling this “An Exercise in Futility.” ^^; I really wanted to add to the T’Cherik fic available and intended happy endings for each of these drabbles but the closest I got was this last one, an open-ended reimagining of a premise I’d already visited that basically had to turn back the hands of time to finagle something even faintly hopeful. Bravo me.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my melancholy meanderings!

**Author's Note:**

> I went with the idea that soulmate names are intensely private, the sort of thing only your parents and possibly medical personnel attending at your birth would know. So Ramonda knows T’Challa’s soulmate is an N’Jadaka and T'Chaka would have known the same.
> 
> I also went with the idea that a face-to-face meeting triggers a bond, even without a touch.


End file.
